What do I have in common with this firetruck?

Wooden ladders? I can’t imagine how hard it was to put carry these and put them up.

Actually owning a fire truck may be part of the reason he’s single, he also owns a cool collection of radios. He lives in a beautiful part of Vermont, where the views are long and the men are strong.

We are both looking pretty good I think.

I’ve never seen Chip’s fire truck so when I went up to give a talk in the area recently, I stopped by. Chip had his pride and joy out of it’s garage waiting when I drove up.

The firetruck looked dated to me. I almost laughed at the vintage touches such as wooden ladders (imagine how heavy to lift) and a “life net”, such as I’ve only seen in the cartoons. I thought “If this showed up when I called in a fire, I would just laugh.”

Chip told me these aren’t used anymore as they rarely worked well. Still, I wish he had pulled it out and I could have jumped off the top of the garage.

It seemed a dinosaur, a historic piece, something worth preserving but of no use anymore. Chip mentioned it needed to be kept covered, the brakes needed work again, it was a lot of upkeep.

Then Chip mentioned the firetruck was from 1960.

1960

That’s the year I was born.

I was as old as this firetruck that seemed almost a joke in it’s simplicity.

I’m beginning to need a lot of upkeep. I’d rather be kept covered at night, I’m over my camping in the woods years. I’m very dated in that I don’t have an iphone and get flustered sometimes with my computer, begging younger friends to “show me how to do this, I just can’t figure it out.”

I am, dare I say it, almost vintage. Still worth keeping around and showing off every now and again.